Identification

Title

Agulhas rings locally enhance dissipation of internal tides

Abstract

Internal tides have a pivotal role in the climate system as a primary source of mechanical energy for diapycnal mixing, which sustains the global meridional overturning circulation. Variations in the location of internal tide dissipation can modify the climatic state of oceanic circulation. Mesoscale eddies and internal tides are two prominent peaks in the ocean energy spectrum, which overlap in spatial scale despite contrasting temporal scales. How eddies affect the dissipation of internal tides remains unclear. Using high-resolution simulations and Argo observations, we show that strong oceanic eddies, such as Agulhas rings, can dissipate internal tides in regions where they intersect, making these eddies hotspots for internal tide dissipation. The Agulhas rings facilitate the transfer of internal tide energy from stable low wave numbers to less stable high wave numbers and subsequently trap these high wave numbers, thereby enhancing their dissipation. Observations from Argo floats reveal elevated dissipation in regions where Agulhas rings and internal tides converge, corroborating the simulations.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7mw2njg

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

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End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2025-05-16T00:00:00Z

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Use constraints

<span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;font-style:normal;" data-sheets-root="1">Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</span>

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact